The sun rises over the city of Hamamatsu as seen from our room near the top floor of the Okura Act City Hotel.

The Shinkansen (bullet train) winds through downtown Hamamatsu.

As we continue our drive to Tokyo, we stop at a rest stop and Helen points out our current location on a map of high earthquake risk areas.

We drove to the top of Nihondaira and then took this cablecar down the mountain to a shrine. The city of Shizuoka is in the background.

Lanterns line the entrance to Kunozan Tosho-gu, a shrine for Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the most powerful shoguns in Japanese history.

The stairway to the main shrine at Kunozan Tosho-gu.

The shrine is decorated with ornate carvings.

Beautiful wood paneling.

For a brief time after his death, the ashes of Tokugawa Ieyasu were stored in this urn.

This is supposedly a real handprint of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

From Kunozan Tosho-gu, there is a good view of the coastline below. The large warehouse-like structures are said to be strawberry farms.

On the way back to the top of Nihondaira, Helen took my picture with the cable car girl.

Mount Fuji, as seen from the top of Nihondaira. The port of Shimizu is in the foreground.

Helen with Mount Fuji.

We ate lunch in Shimizu, where the harbor has a very nice view of Fuji.

Helen and me with Mount Fuji.

After lunch, we drove to this impressive waterfall near Fuji.

The waterfall is in a giant sinkhole, kind of like a mini-Niagara.

A panorama of the falls that I stitched together from 10 photos.

Driving to our hotel that afternoon, there were some picturesque views of Fuji, such as this one with cows.

Fuji didn't have much snow on it yet, even though we were there in late December.

The Japanese Alps were quite a sight.